This biography documents the story of an amazing woman who devoted her life to the foundation and growth of a boys' club in north Fort Worth.
Beginning with her childhood in Fort Worth at the turn of the century, J'Nell Pate chronicles Hazel's troubled marriage to Grover Leigh, her bitter rivalry with Panther Boys' Club director Martha Justice, the Great Depression, World War II, her college days at TCU, and her intense commitment to boys' club work.
Though she had no children of her own, Hazel became a strict yet caring "mother" to thousands of young men through her involvement in...

Livestock markets for the sale and distribution of meat developed as early as the days of colonial America. In the mid-nineteenth century, as westward expansion increased and railroads developed, stockyards companies formed in order to meet the demand of a growing nation. Contrary to markets, these companies were centrally organized and managed by a select few principal partners "America's Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels is an examination of such stockyards, from their early beginnings to their eventual decline. Stockyards helped to establish some of America's greatest cities. Early on...

A hundred years ago a simple business arrangement changed the course of Fort Worth's economy for years to come and its character perhaps forever. On July 26, 1887, the Union Stock Yards Company received a charter to do business in an area just north of town. The legacy of that charter: Cowtown.
J'Nell L. Pate has spent ten years researching the Fort Worth market, with full access to company records and local archives. The result is a thorough, thoughtful, and colorful examination of the industry and its effects on this city.
The early years of the stockyards were years of struggle...